Lull Me to Sleep
by Running Bird
Summary: After an explosion at the Uchiha compound, Sasuke, only a young boy at the time, miraculously survives. SasuHina, modern AU. Time-travel fic. One-shot for now.


**Lull Me to Sleep**

"_Legend has it that during the first dynasty of China, the founding Emperor sent five hundred young men and five hundred young women, all of great intelligence and beauty, on an expedition to the Far East. Their quest was to find and return with the Elixir of Life. However, they never came back_—"

"This story is bo~ring," said a young boy with black hair and equally black eyes as he lay, arms wrapped around a large pillow, on the clinic bed. Despite his tender age, his sharp gaze seemed to pierce into the white eyes of the entity before him. Before his accident, he had never caught sight of her. Upon asking his parents and elder brother about her during their visit, only bewilderment had been their response. As well as a prolongation of his stay at the clinic to ensure that he was not suffering from post-traumatic symptoms. Thankfully, it was winter holidays; therefore, he would not miss classes. After all, eight-year-old Uchiha Sasuke had a reputation to maintain at school as _the_ number one in… pretty much everything.

A glance at his _Power Rangers_ wristwatch on the bedside table told him that it was time to turn in for the night. It was 21 00. Without a word to the pale woman in white clothes, the young boy rolled over to face the window and the blue-black, snow-framed world beyond. Still, before sleep could embrace him the silence was briefly broken by a mumbled "Good night, Hinata".

The pale woman bid him good night as well, a soft expression gracing her features. Earlier that day, Sasuke had just regained consciousness and noticed her for the very first time. Thinking that she was a nurse, given her white attire, he had asked to see his parents. Then, as though struck by a bolt of lightning, he had recalled that none of the other nurses here wore kimonos to go about their duties. Besides, the midnight-blue hair which cascaded down her back and brushed the tiled floor made her look more like a character from a historical drama.

However, Sasuke had displayed not an ounce of fear upon realizing that her round eyes held white, pupil-less irises. Instead, his dark eyes had suddenly brightened with a twinkle that appeared all-too-familiar to the young woman.

Innocent curiosity.

But then his family members, informed of his coming to, had barged into the room. His subsequent inquiry about Hinata's identity had resulted in an extension of his stay at the clinic. Evidently, the disconcerted child had sulked about that piece of news and impulsively blamed everything on poor Hinata.

As she looked about the pastel-colored room, her gaze fell upon the portable gaming console and the small box of game chips which Sasuke's elder brother, Itachi, had surreptitiously brought with him from home. They were buried between two stacks of fiction novels and comic magazines inside a rather large sports bag. As soon as visiting hours had ended (a bit after dinner time), Sasuke had snatched the console and a _Power Rangers_ game chip from the bag. And royally ignored Hinata until his character died at the exact same spot for the fourth time in a row and he finally rage quit.

At last, he had asked, "Who are you?"

"_Hinata_."

"… What about your family name?"

"_Well, you see_…"

"No, I don't."

"_That's rude_," she had mumbled. But when she had next locked eyes with him, Sasuke had visibly stiffened and ducked his head while apologizing quietly. Afterwards, she had tried to ease the atmosphere by proposing to narrate a story.

Now that Sasuke was fast asleep, the young woman simply remained by his side… the moment of the accident was replaying vividly in her memories. The previous day, which meant two days after Christmas, the child before her had escaped death by a thread. He was at home with Itachi only that day, both their parents having gone out to buy fireworks for the New Year's celebration, when a fire broke as soon as Sasuke switched on the light in the kitchen to fetch an afternoon snack. The following morning, the front page of the daily newspaper reported the cause of the fire to be a gas leak. Miraculously, the young boy had been spared by the explosion and ensuing fire. An alarmed Itachi had found Sasuke unconscious in the corridor and immediately carried him outside. The incident was still under investigation by Sasuke and Itachi's father, Uchiha Fugaku, who was part of the local police.

The hours ticked by, the passage of time was indicated outside by intermittent flurries of frozen flowers. The pale woman watched the scenery unfolding beyond the windowpane silently, unblinking. However, her attention immediately snapped back to the black-haired child as soon as he let out a slight whimper. _He may be having a nightmare_, she thought anxiously.

Instinctively, she floated over to where his head was resting and placed a delicate hand over his forehead. Flashes of vermilion and scarlet blurred her vision. Then everything went blank for a brief instant, after which the clinic room came back into focus.

_Did he just reject me…?_

Stunned, Hinata merely looked at restless child on the bed. It had already occurred before that Sasuke struggled against her intrusion in his sleep: as usual, she was trying to shoo bad dreams away. However, tonight, for the very first time ever, he had effortlessly expelled her.

_Maybe this time… he'll be able to escape the nightmare on his own?_

As if on cue, the slight crease between Sasuke's eyebrows deepened and he stirred, clenching fistfuls of the rumpled bed sheet in his small hands.

_This is bad. What to do, what to do?_

Several more frantic attempts later, Hinata still failed to enter his current dream. The occasional whimpers from Sasuke were also of no help at all but somewhat succeeded in pushing the young woman into a state of panic. Short of innovative ideas, she decided to resort to an age-old bedtime solution.

"_La la la-la…"_

The room slowly filled with a melody only for Sasuke's ears to hear. At first he showed no apparent sight of calming down. Instead of admitting defeat though, Hinata stubbornly continued her improvised lullaby, laced with a good portion of her spiritual energy. Each time she paused to examine the results of her efforts she had to start humming almost at once; otherwise, the young boy's expression immediately darkened.

The following morning when Sasuke woke up, he found no sign of Hinata in his room. Intrigued by the absence of this spirit woman, instead of feeling relieved like any person in their right mind would, he tried to call out to her but to no avail. To be honest, he wanted to tell her about a peculiar dream which had woven its way into his sleep the previous night. It sort of reminded him of the story she had been narrating before he went to sleep. A particular detail about it was piquing his interest.

_Where is sheee?_

Unfortunately for him, only nurses and his assigned doctor entered his field of vision that morning. And they sure doted on him, much to his irritation. He was especially irked by the unexpected arrival of some perverted-looking psychologist, who behaved much too touchy-feely to Sasuke's liking and who sat a tad too close for comfort. Near lunchtime, his parents and brother paid him a visit which lasted until sunset. He seized this opportunity to talk about the psychologist to his mother. The latter immediately stormed out of the room with a smiling face, marred only by the suspicious twitch beneath her right eye.

When the younger son of Uchiha Mikoto asked his father about her whereabouts, Uchiha Fugaku simply patted him on the head and told Itachi to keep his brother company. "I'll go and look for your mother," said their father before closing the door behind him.

While the parents were gone, Sasuke decided to share his dream with Itachi. "I dreamt that I was all grown up and living in some sort of coastal village. It seemed like a fleet of wooden ships had just arrived from the west. They looked just like those in the picture books we've got at home! And the~n… I was helping them disembark when I suddenly met this super pretty girl and…," Sasuke had to pause at that moment due to the furious blush invading his pale cheeks, "And stuff happened. I can't exactly remember, it kinda skipped. But I know that afterwards… I… we…"

Itachi, who could be mistaken as a teenage version of his younger brother, said in a monotonous voice, though belied by his quirked eyebrow, "You…? Spit it out. Though I feel like I already know where this is going." To his mild satisfaction, Sasuke flushed a deeper shade at his words.

"I-think-we-got-married-because-it-skipped-to-us-living-in-the-same-house-and-the-pretty-girl-had-a-round-belly."

"You didn't have to actually spit on me," was Itachi's reply. "Though it does make me wonder if this dream is not just the mixture of a crush on one of the girls at your school with the setting of one of those movies which Mother seems so fond of."

"Huh?"

"Never mind. Is there someone you like at school?"

"Well… there's Sakura…," said Sasuke as he began to count on his fingers, "and Ino… and Minami… and Himeko…"

"Just shut up already," muttered an annoyed Itachi as he clamped a hand over his brother's mouth.

That night, after the nurse had left him alone to sleep, Sasuke began to wonder whether the apparition of the pale woman on the previous day might have just been, indeed, a post-trauma-whatever-difficult-term-that-was-tom. He lay down in bed and drowsily closed his eyes.

"_Good night, Sasuke_."

A peaceful smile graced his features as the young boy drifted to sleep.

The next morning, which was the 30th of December, he showed no surprise at the presence of Hinata by his bedside. Instead, he instantly blurted out a question which had lingered at the back of his mind since waking up from the strange dream.

"You are my wife!"

A question which now sounded more like a downright accusation. One should blame the whirlpool of emotions swirling inside him for that, thank you very much.

Hinata only blinked in response, clearly taken aback. Her reply came after a short while; it felt like she was choosing her words carefully before she spoke –

"_Eh?_"

Or maybe not quite.

"I dreamt about you…," mumbled Sasuke, embarrassed, as he looked down at the thick blanket covering his lower body. Idly, he began to toy with the hem of his pajama sleeve. "Well, us…"

There was a soft sigh to his left, followed a light laugh. When he looked back up at Hinata, the latter said, "_Shall I continue with the story from where we left off last time_?"

To her relief, Sasuke nodded and gave her an expectant look.

"_The people who departed for the Far East never returned to China. Instead, they are believed to have sailed until they reached a big island. This island, evidently, is now known as Japan. I was aboard one of the ships," _upon hearing this piece of information, Sasuke unconsciously leaned forward, his hands now clutching the blanket in quiet anticipation, "_after having fled my home back in China. The Emperor himself stamped my papers without much inquiry. That much was enough to prove just how frantic he was to see us return with this Elixir as soon as possible. During the voyage, we encountered a couple of storms. After we were through the second one, the most damaged ships were forced to drop anchor by the nearest shore. Those aboard settled in what we now call Korea._

_"__The rest of us went further eastwards, until we came across a multitude of islands. Some of the larger ships stopped by Kyushu, the big island found to the south-west of the archipelago. Others, including the one I was aboard, continued along the coast, to the north-east I believe. As we were nearing a bay, we were caught in another storm which almost blew us ashore. Thankfully, a coastal village was in sight and the people there helped us out."_

"And then the me from the past met you!" exclaimed an excited Sasuke, though not loud enough for his voice to reach the corridor beyond. One simple look at Hinata's face confirmed his deduction. "But that was really, _really_ long ago. Also…," he glanced at her hesitantly, "I have a… question..."

"_Hmm, what is it?_"

"Well… How come you are like _that_," he gestured vaguely in her direction, "but I am like _this_?" He lightly pinched his forearm for emphasis.

"_Oh. Uhm… I guess you may not believe what I am about to say. Let's see… According to you, do guardian spirits exist?_"

Sasuke only blinked in response.

The rest of the morning was spent in discussing Hinata's role of watching over Sasuke's well-being every time he had been reincarnated. Sasuke was easily convinced to keep quiet about everything – it made him feel like the characters in his favorite television show, they had to combat evil in secret.

Still, a tricky question eventually came her way.

"But why didn't you have as many lives as I had?"

Fortunately, she did not have to answer that one. A nurse entered the room at that moment with Sasuke's breakfast tray and the young boy's attention promptly zeroed in on the food. Hinata watched with an amused expression as her young protégé ate his cereals merrily.

"Say…," he finally mumbled, a while after the nurse had left. "If you are a spirit, then we can't get married when I grow up?"

Hinata shook her head apologetically. However, she suddenly froze, her eyes widening in surprise as she noticed the sad gleam in Sasuke's eyes.

"We really _can't_?" he repeated in what sounded almost like a pleading voice.

Hinata knew in that instant that, depending on her answer, Sasuke's fate might be sealed. In past lives, either unnatural deaths had befallen him or he had passed away filled with regrets, which explained why he had not yet escaped the cycle of reincarnation.

"_Someday you will meet a person who will make you the happiest man on earth_," she said with a small smile.

"But I already did! Very, very long ago I met you and we got married and—"

"_Yes, of course. I'm sincerely sorry, Sasuke, but you will have to meet someone other than me_."

"No, I won't." To emphasize to his final decision, Sasuke attempted to set his features into a serious frown. With slightly puffed cheeks. And pouting lips.

As adorable a sight as he was to behold right now, Hinata could not forget that she was running out of options. She lightly pursed her lips, deep in thought. What to do in such a situation? The obvious path to follow would be to make him find happiness in his current life.

"By the way," said the young boy as he peered straight into Hinata's twin white orbs. "Can you do again what you did with the dream last time? Because it felt so… so _real_ back then. Please? Hinata?"

"_Sure, no problem_," replied Hinata, though a bit too quickly. Sasuke did not seem to mind her hasty answer though. Instead, his face lit up in pure excitement. "_But it makes me really tired afterwards, so it can't be too often_."

"That's okay! Then, every Saturday night, please?"

She mentally sighed in resignation. Looking at the bright side, perhaps they would bump into past selves of the girls he currently knew. And love might bud for one of them? This was actually plausible.

Hinata nodded.

.

.

.

~x~

**Author's note, 2014-10-12**

**Hello everyone, and thank you very much for reading this fic! It was inspired by a random idea I had some time ago while reading time-travel manga. For now, it'll just be a one-shot.**

**Your input is always appreciated! :D**


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